The Orthodox Fellowship of St John the Baptist

The Fellowship has the blessing of The Pan-Orthodox Episcopal Assembly for the British Isles and Ireland.

Within the fellowship English-speaking members of the several Orthodox Church Traditions in the British Isles and Ireland can come together, and through prayer, discussion and mutual friendship, deepen their commitment to, and understanding of, the Orthodox Christian faith.

A really fascinating talk about Russian Pilgrimage to Mount Athos by Dr Nicholas Fennell Watch out for the millennium celebrations of Russians on Athos in 2016!

Metropolitan Kallistos sprinkles the pilgrims at the Fellowship’s summer conference/

This was followed by a potted history of Orthodoxy in Walsingham by Fr Philip Steer.
An earlier written version of the talk can be found here [pdf]

Did you know that St Nikolai Velimirovic served the Liturgy here several times after being released from Dachau concentration camp? St Nikolai, pray to God for us!

In the afternoon, Fr Pancratios Sanders challenged us to go on more pilgrimages in the right spirit: to the Holy Land, to sites of martyrdom, to monasteries, wonder – working icons… and to sites associated with British Saints like Holywell.

Challenging questions on how much hardship a pilgrim should endure, expecting the unexpected and what their top tips would be for a Pilgrimage Survival Guide.

Sunday 5th July:

So the Fellowship summer conference came to a fitting end with the Divine Liturgy, where Metropolitan Kallistos reminded us that we are icons of the cherubim, participating in the eternal Divine Liturgy where Christ is both He that offers and He that is offered.